Category - Moments

This first entry of 2005 is being written in the Detroit World Club. Our family is finally back in the US after several wonderful days in Thailand. Many of you have written letters to me, asking about the extent to which the tsunami impacted our...

The entire family's in Bangkok ... everyone together, everyone safe. Everyone around us -- guides, hotel workers, tailors, local friends -- remains shocked by the tragedy in the region. Almost everyone has lost someone -- family, friends, co-workers...

On the morning we're scheduled to drive north, we wake to freezing temperatures and ice warnings. I jokingly point to one of the outdoor trees; bedecked with ornaments and white lights, it sparkles as though coated with ice. "Look, Chelsea!" I say...

We're headed to Asia, meeting John, Jeri, Phil, Brett, Barbara, and Lisa along the way. In the Jackson airport, we're caught behind a couple who have never experienced the Wonders of Air Travel before. "I have to take off my coat?" the wife asks...

I sit in the Black Angus Steak and Seafood House. The restaurant, a converted warehouse in a small northern Mississippi town, bustles with Saturday night patrons. The menu makes choosing an entree simple. "What'll it be, sweet baby?" the waitress...

Returning from our weekend getaway, Clyde and I plot a course taking us through a number of small Alabama towns: Opp, Andalusia, Babbie, Rabb, Samson. In each, a string of abandoned businesses -- boarded up gas stations, dreary motels, shattered...

Clyde wakes early -- 6:30, in fact. He rolls over and shakes me. "Hey," he says. "Hey, you." I sit up, bleary-eyed. "What time is it?" "It's eight-thirty," Clyde says. I pull on my glasses and glance at the clock. "It's six-thirty!" "Eight-thirty...

Wildfires close the highway to Tahoe, our destination of choice for the day. We switch to Plan B, and drive to Reno, NV, instead. After stopping along the way for yet another In-N-Out burger, we arrive in Reno about 2:00 local time. The city amounts...

Clyde gets up at 6:00 to help his mother fry chicken. The kitchen fills with thin, gray smoke. The liquid fat crackles and spatters. The mound of chicken on the kitchen table grows higher: legs, thighs, breasts, and strips of white meat "for the...